Digital cameras already let you see what part of the image is the focus point, but you don't always have time to look at the display, and in bright light it may be hard to see. Also, when you get your images uploaded into the computer and start to work with them, you might see details that you'd like to crop and focus on, perhaps things that you didn't even realize were in the shot... like in the movie "Blow-Up," when David Hemmings sees what may be evidence of murder in the blurry background shrubberies photographed with a film camera. I can't find the scene where he's blowing up the blowups of the blowups, so here's the scene with The Yardbirds:

The x-ray machine we have developed does a similar thing. Acquire one x-ray and use the data to retrospectively produce focus at any desired plane. The technique is called (you'll get a kick out of this, Althouse) TOMOSYNTHESIS. Too funny, I know.

Scene close to the end of the movie. David Hemmings returns to the park, kneels down and finds that the corpse he projected in the blow-ups of his pictures is not there. He looks up, and we see a shot of tree branches. The camera moves down, and suddenly Hemmings steps into the frame. Were we fooled, or is Antonioni pointing out that Hemmings' assumptions, as well as our own, did not agree with what is actually there?

Travolta made a movie about a similar experience only his took place in NYC, I think. Much better although Hemming's Blowup was first and kind of kook. Saw it in a theater and recall something about gorilla costumes. A strange flick back then.

Also, when you get your images uploaded into the computer and start to work with them, you might see details that you'd like to crop and focus on, perhaps things that you didn't even realize were in the shot."

Quite interesting technology but I don't see how this takes market share from DSLR cameras. The article even seems to suggest as much in stating that their initial target is social media sites; the typical users on those sites are using P&S or camera phones. Most people who have invested in interchangeable lenses aren't going to give them up for a fixed lens camera.

But I can see an immediate application for the Lytro in shooting macros. Normally a photographer would take multiple photos and "stack" them in an image editor to simulate a narrow aperture and large depth of field.

I'd also be interested to see if they make the Raw files available for manipulation in a Raw converter and/or pixel editor. That would open up lots of avenues and even convince DSLR shooters to give this camera a try.

Oh, no - photographers still carry multiple cameras and equipment. I usually carry a Canon digital SLR, a Kodak pocket camera, and a little HD movie camera, and that doesn't count the filters, flash, tripod when needed, extra lights and so forth. And I'm an amateur.

Carol wrote " Gone are the days a photographer would be multi-draped in camera equipment."

So apparently one does this focus area selecting with its algorithmic calculating while the photo is still in the camera? Shirley, you can copy the photo right there in the camera and focus everything then compress all the copies into one, if that's what you wanted. But I like out of focus areas and bokeh. It's art. Otherwise the depth of field is expanded by stopping down, or another lens is used.

About the movie Blow-Up. The photographer goes to the park twice. The first time the body is there, yet he doesn't call police (even though he has a car radio phone). They don't explicitly tell you, but one gets the idea that he sees this whole thing (the assassination) as some kind of an art project and he wants to talk it over with his editor/publisher/friend. When he goes back to the park later, the body is gone. He realizes that he has nothing then--the negatives and the prints have already been stolen at that point.

I'm at loss as to what the point of this camera is. It takes a fraction of a second to focus so, you save, what? Or you'll just walk around randomly taking pictures and then decide later what to focus on? It all just seems pointless.